Tropical islands from another time on Panama’s Caribbean coast
On the Caribbean coast near the Costa Rican border is perhaps Panama‘s most scenic and typically tropical archipelago, centred around the town of Bocas del Toro. It’s an area on the up, unravaged by large-scale tourism but certainly accessible, and stunningly beautiful. That said, this is the jungle proper, and if you don’t like things with many legs that crawl and jump and fly, this may not be the place for you.
I spent two nights at Red Frog Resort on Isla Bastimentos, a short boat trip away from the town of Bocas del Toro, after an internal flight from Panama City. The resort was relatively new at the time of my visit, consisting partly of “jungle huts” and also of timeshare villas, all quite spread out in the Panamanian jungle. Faulty internet and phone in my jungle hut meant an upgrade to a three bedroom villa, with no cause for complaint from me!
Bocas del Toro town juts out over the Caribbean Sea on stilts, and is like a modern-day Pirates of the Caribbean movie set. It wraps around the airstrip in a cramped fashion, with a population of around twelve thousand.
The town square with the local government building on the right, full of traders, hawkers and people playing music. (in the square, not the government building). The square itself is called Parque Simón Bolivár.
One of the many picturesque if slightly ramshackle hostels that stud the central area of Bocas town. Here, the Panamanian flag flies above Coconut Hostel. I also passed through Selina Hostel, having met the owner on my boat back from Red Frog Resort.
One of the piratey streets in central Bocas, this one has the very un-piratey name of Calle 1a (First Street).
A small fruit seller’s shop in central Bocas, with battered bananas at various stages of ripening.
Bocas is the sort of place where people have old boats and decaying cars in their garden – this was one of the more interesting such houses.
Cute yellow houses on stilts at the shoreline of Bocas town. These are actually part of a hotel on Isla Carenero.
Our boat transfer went past some pretty beaches on the way to Red Frog Resort.
Red Frog Beach is the typical Caribbean idyll, as seen here from the Punta Lava café.
Another of Red Frog Resort’s several beaches.
The jungle huts were arranged around a small shared pool, at which I appeared to be the only guest.
My own jungle hut, while perfectly comfortable, had no working phone or internet. The broken phone was a problem, as the resort is quite spread out and the expectation is that you call for a golf cart to take you to the beach, or reception. I was otherwise stranded, or walking twenty minutes to get anywhere, not ideal at a resort hotel.
A view of the sparkling Caribbean Sea from the jungle huts pool.
Loungers on Red Frog Beach down at the Punta Lava café. There was another establishment along the beach, but I didn’t trouble them for custom as Punta Lava was good enough for me, so I stuck with that.
Over to the villas now, most of which had their own pool and views north over the Caribbean. It doesn’t get much better than this.
After a complaint to reception (having marched down there), I was upgraded from a jungle hut to a three bedroom villa, not bad at all. This is the master bedroom, which has its own lounge, in addition to the main lounge downstairs. I actually ended up sleeping downstairs though, as it was too hot up here even with the AC on full. And there was a bat.
Although it rained much of the day, it didn’t stop me from using my own private pool!
Leafcutter ants scurry about their business. Bocas del Toro is easily the most jungley place I’d been to date, while sitting in my pool I could watch thousands of ants rapidly marching past.
It was a menagerie of creepy crawlies, giant grasshoppers would sit around on my villa terraces, ants all over the place and giant moths and bats would flutter around at dusk. This beast is a good five inches long with giant red wings.
Another spectacular view of the Caribbean Sea from Red Frog Beach.
Quietly ageing canoes garnish the mangrove forest by the marina pier.
My transport glides across the bay to Isla Bastimentos, to ferry me back to Isla Colón and Bocas Town.
Bocas airport is not a large affair, but it is international with flights going at least as far as San José in Costa Rica. Which was exactly the route I took, after the short walk to the airport from Selina Hostel where the boat had dropped me off.
My flying taxi back to San José was in the form of a Nature Air Let 410, developed in the 1960s in Czechia and popular in the Soviet Union. Nature Air was purportedly the world’s only net zero airline, but following a serious accident about a year after my flight, they went out of business.
Once airborne we were quickly over the jungles and cloud forests around the Panama-Costa Rica border, with spectacular views all the way to San José.
Created 2017 | Updated 2025
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